As the performance requirements of both civil and military aircraft increases, conventional control technologies using mechanical linkages cannot relieve the pilot from higher mental and manual control activity. As such, today's high performance aircraft as well as some transport aircraft use “fly-by-wire” sidesticks, center sticks, yokes, joysticks and control columns. As used herein, these devices will be generically referred to either “control columns” or “control sticks,” with these terms being generally synonymous in a generic sense.
These fly-by-wire control columns simulate tactile feedback relating to the forces acting on the control surfaces of the aircraft to the control columns.
In a “passive” control column, the pilot feels spring or damper forces according to the applied deflection of a stick of the control column which is the control input to a flight control computer (FCC). These forces are realized by a spring and damper package. In such a passive control column, the force profile applied to the stick which provides the tactile feedback to the pilot is fixed.
It is desired to provide a control column that improves on the current state of the art.